Journaling is something that I did when I was about 9-10 years old. I was excited to write in my “diary” and express all of my emotions and feelings. Then I grew up and completely forgot about it, thinking it was more for a child or teenager to find an outlet of expressing themselves. College and work came along and honestly, nobody got time for that. So I stopped doing it. I want to say that anyone who continued journaling as an adult good for you, I didn’t realize how therapeutic the effects where up until a few months ago, so power to you. Now, when I started I didn’t really know how to “do” it. Do I just write why I feel anxious or pissed off and what I want to do about it. Am I supposed to approach it like with an paper and follow MLA format… what’s happening here. I figured it out quick enough and found my perfect way of journaling on a daily basis and what helps me the most.
I start of with the time and date, I want to be able to track where I am and visualize how I felt when I read back in the future. Then I write how I’m physically feeling and mentally. After I go right into what’s blocking me. Why am I anxious, or pissed off, or irritated. I just go all in, no filter-no thinking. Just blurt it out all on the page like word vomit. You’d be surprised how quickly you’ll feel relieved. You won’t need an hour of journaling to start to feel the effects. For me personally, it’s almost instant. Within 5-10 minutes I already feel lighter. I feel like whatever was inside of my mind is now just trying to survive on paper but slowly suffocating and dying because it can no longer feed and fest on my brain. I usually go back and read it through after a few minutes and most times I realize dude, you’re stressing for nothinggg. Chill out, breathe, it’s all good. You got this.
So my point is, if you’re stressing about something, go find yourself a pen and paper and vomit that shit out. Don’t bottle it inside. Just get it out. I promise you if it doesn’t work I’m giving you full permission to bitch me out in the comments below and tell me I suck. Hopefully, that’s not the case but let me know…
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